Week 7: Zapata (Higuera, Mara)

 In Claudia E Zapata’s essay “Chicanx Graphics in Digital Age”, she discussed how digitalized art has expediated the process of the Chicanx movement. The article starts by mentioning the initiation of the digital era when Cesar Chavez saw Barbara’s Carrasco’s digital lightboard in New York City. The essay emphasizes the need for technology in modern day activism. Although the switch from physical to digital artwork was abrupt and sudden, Rubert Garcia “eventually embraced the speed of art making with digital tools” (132). While the growth of technology has been rapid and sudden, digitalization has facilitated the creation and exposure of art. With digital art not only are artists able to create in a much-expedited process, but they can also send their art out to the world in just one click.  One of the main examples that I was able to relate to be the new process of creating Papel picado, a traditional art form used on altars during the Day of the Dead. With new machinery such as “this paper-cutting effect with computer-based laser technology”. Machines like the Cricut and Silhouette have allowed for the perfect form of cutting with just the click of a button. Although this machinery can be convenient, it can take away from the originality and uniqueness of every individual technique when creating art. The digital form of art has allowed the world to become smaller using technology.

This can be explained by how quick publications of art works can be seen throughout the world through apps and the internet. This is helpful regarding the Chicanx movement because awareness can also be sent out to the world in just a click. One of the most prominent examples that I saw during the pandemic was the art pieces that were made for the soldier Vanessa Guillen. In order to bring awareness and expose artistic ability, many art pieces were made digitally and posted throughout social media in order to help bring justice to Vanessa Guillen. All in all, while the digitalization of art has allowed for an easier way to create art and faster way to bring awareness to a cause. However, because everything digital can be very uniform the diversity and uniqueness of individual style can be lost when using specific techniques to create art.